26) - outside of his scoring, his numbers basically match or better those of Siakam’s this year. Rookie Scottie Barnes has hung very well as a rock in the rotation in spite of the fact that the Raptors have played 21 different players through a COVID-strained season (the Raptors had 10 players in the NBA’s health and safety protocol on Dec. Their starters have really done well, all averaging over 15 points per game - three of them (VanVleet - 21.3 ppg, Siakam - 20.4 ppg, Anunoby - 19.3) hovering around the 20 points per game mark. 500 for the first time this season, riding a four game win streak to the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference. While this may put the Jazz’s insane 10 game road game winning streak in peril, all good things must come to an end eventually. I think this game will be interesting to check out what the Jazz have in their deep bench and get everyone some development minutes.
We’ll assume that most of the questionable guys will see some time, though it may be limited. Even so, if all players listed as questionable are in fact out for this game, the Jazz would only have 7 active players - Trent Forrest, Elijah Hughes, Malik Fitts, Eric Paschall, and Udoka Azuibuike, as well as recent 10-day hardship signees Danuel House and Norvel Pelle - exactly the NBA minimum of number to conduct a game. It totally makes sense that even “load management” let alone lingering injury would put some of the Jazz players on the bench. OUT - Donovan Mitchell (Left Low Back Strain)- Andy Larsen January 6, 2022 OUT - Bojan Bogdanovic (Left Middle Finger Sprain) OUT - Mike Conley (Right Knee Injury Recovery) OUT - Rudy Gobert (Health & Safety Protocols) OUT - Joe Ingles (Health & Safety Protocols)